Digital watermarking is a process for modifying physical or electronic media to embed a machine-readable code into the media. The media may be modified such that the embedded code is imperceptible or nearly imperceptible to the user, yet may be detected through an automated detection process. Most commonly, digital watermarking is applied to media signals such as images, audio signals, and video signals. However, it may also be applied to other types of media objects, including documents (e.g., through line, word or character shifting), software, multi-dimensional graphics models, and surface textures of objects.
Digital watermarking systems typically have two primary components: an encoder that embeds the watermark in a host media signal, and a decoder that detects and reads the embedded watermark from a signal suspected of containing a watermark (a suspect signal). The encoder embeds a watermark by altering the host media signal. The reading component analyzes a suspect signal to detect whether a watermark is present. In applications where the watermark encodes information, the reader extracts this information from the detected watermark.
Several particular watermarking techniques have been developed. The reader is presumed to be familiar with the literature in this field. Particular techniques for embedding and detecting imperceptible watermarks in media signals are detailed in the assignee's application Ser. No. 09/503,881 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,614,914) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,260, which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Content can also be processed to extract an identifier by techniques such as applying a hashing algorithm to the content data, yielding, e.g., a 128 bit identifier.
The present technology provides methods and systems for associating objects with machine behaviors. In this context, machine behaviors refer to actions by devices or systems in response to a triggering event. Examples of these behaviors include fetching a web page, opening an email client to send an email to a specific person, initiating a phone or video conference call, etc.
One illustrative embodiment is a method by which an end-user customizes behavior of a camera-equipped wireless communications device. The customization includes defining different user-desired behaviors that are associated with different visual stimuli, so that different behaviors are triggered when the user later presents different visual stimuli to the device.
Another illustrative embodiment is a computer including a user interface on which an image of an object is presented on the left side, and an image depicting a corresponding behavior is presented on the right side. Associated controls can permit the user to associate different objects with different behaviors.
Further features will become apparent with reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.